Frederick Hitch

Frederick Hitch (29 November 1856-6 January 1913) was a British Army private who received the Victoria Cross for his bravery at the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift.

Biography
Frederick Hitch was born in Southgate, Middlesex, England in 1856, and he enlisted in the British Army's 24th Regiment of Foot in 1877 and was deployed to South Africa. On 22-23 January 1879, he fought at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, during which he was severely wounded before recovering sufficiently enough to deliver ammunition to his comrades during the later stages of the battle. He was sent to the Royal Victoria Military Hospital at Southampton, where Queen Victoria herself awarded him the Victoria Cross for his bravery. Unfortunately, he was hard-pressed to find a manual labor job due to his arm injury, and his disability pension was a mere £10 a year. In 1901, he suffered a fall while climbing a ladder, and his Victoria Cross was stolen from him while he was in the hospital; he was forced to pay for a new one from his own pocket, and he was fired from his job shortly after. He later became a carriage driver and then a motor cab driver, and he died alone in Chiswick, London in 1913.